What: Orlando Thanksgiving Day Parade.What else I: Days of Our Lives star Deidre Hall (left) and TV-radio personality Wolfman Jack (right) will host this parade, which will air at a later date on television. Among the floats, bands, Santa Claus and other attractions of the parade, there will be appearances by soap actors Valarie Pettifold (One Life to Live), Chris Bruno (Another World), Susan Keith (Loving), James Kiberd (All My Children), Brad Maule (General Hospital), Brian Heidik (Days of Our Lives)

Happy Hippo is ready for her closeup. The character is a new balloon that's joined the lineup for the Macy's Holiday Parade, which returned to Universal Studios last weekend. Happy goes way back. She debuted in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in 1931. She, along with other characters, was created by the retailer. "At the time there wasn't an overwhelming amount of cartoon characters to really choose from in the landscape to develop large balloons," says Amy Kule, executive producer of the parade.

Lake Howell High School Band boosters began a series of fund-raisers last week to help finance a band trip to the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade.Planners for the Nov. 25 parade invited the Silver Regiment band to perform. The band has consistently rated superior in district and statewide competitions, band parents association spokeswoman Mary Beth Diehl said.The band will need to raise about $90,000 for the trip, which will include as many of the 175 band, drill and dance team members as possible, Diehl said.

LEESBURG - Three varsity cheerleaders from First Academy-Leesburg got to spend their Thanksgiving holiday participating in a tradition that has captivated the young and young at heart for decades. They performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City beneath three- to five-story-high balloons depicting cartoon characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Snoopy and Woodstock. Temperatures were freezing and winds higher than normal for the 87th annual parade. With nearly 600 of their peers from across the nation, Chandra Mills, 16, Allison Palmer, 17, and Autumn Veres, 17, were chosen as part of the "Spirit of America" dance-drill team of Dallas, which has been an associate of the parade since 1986.

Two south Lake County students will travel to New York City to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as part of a singing group made up of high school students from throughout the United States.Shelly Bryant and Michelle Sapp, seniors at South Lake High School in Clermont, will join 500 students - members of 35 choirs in 19 states - Nov. 28 to march in the parade shown live on television as part of America Sings!America Sings! is a not-for-profit organization based in Alexandria, Va., that does community service.

After watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for about 20 minutes, I found that the nonstop "canned chatter" of the hosts and the endless self-indulged commercials got to me. I was forced to trek over to Daytona for the family Thanksgiving dinner early this year, with a quick stop at the beach to regain my sanity. Larry Martin Orlando

Macy's flagship New York store will be the subject of a reality show on WE, the Women's Entertainment network. `Unwrapping Macy's' begins airing Sept. 30 and will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the store's operations, including the Thanksgiving Day parade.

Q. Will Macy's department store, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, still put on its Thanksgiving Day parade in New York?A. Kermit the frog, Spiderman and the half-million spectators who watch them move through Manhattan each Thanksgiving can relax. The extravagant parade - with its giant cartoon characters and bigger than big-band sound - will go on this year as usual. Much of the parade's cost is paid for by corporate gifts and fees for TV rights.

BECAUSE of achievements in excellence in competition, the five officers of the Seminole High School dance team, the Dazzlers, were invited to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The cost would be $1,327 per girl.That was a seemingly overwhelmingly obstacle, but through support from the community, it was overcome.Through support from individuals and businesses, these girls will get to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Nelson Thornton SANFORD

Move over Betty Boop, Snoopy and Spiderman. Way over. Babar, King of the Elephants, will join his floating cartoon brethren in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade down Broadway, Macy's announced Wednesday. The 20-foot-tall balloon, complete with green suit and royal yellow crown, will make its debut test flight Saturday in Central Park. He will join 16 other air-filled characters in the 65th annual parade.

LEESBURG - First Academy-Leesburg Principal Greg Frescoln it was quite an accomplishment for varsity cheerleaders Chandra Mills, Allison Palmer and Autumn Vere to perforrm in the recent Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. "They were so excited to go, and they did such a great job," said Frescoln, who has been at First Academy for 21 years. "I am sure this is an experience they will never forget. " The team had received invitations in prior years but hadn't participated before.

To mark its 85 t h anniversary, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will turn to Spider-Man, Julius the Sock Monkey and Neil Diamond. Macy's looms over the Thanksgiving TV schedule. The 85 t h anniversary has inspired an NBC special at 10 tonight. Matt Lauer, who has hosted the parade for 13 years, looks back at its history with insights from Christina Applegate, Betty Buckley, Katie Couric, Florence Henderson, Joe Jonas, Phylicia Rashad, Pat Sajak, Willard Scott and Betty White.

THE VILLAGES - Never mind Dancer and Prancer, Comet and Blitzen. This Santa arrived in a cherry picker. The year was 1977. "Santa" was a Philadelphia firefighter - Harry Martin, 74, now a Villages resident. For two decades, Martin was the Santa in Philly's Gimbels-sponsored Thanksgiving Day parade: "New Yorkers have their Macy's parade. We had Gimbels…" At the end of the parade, it was customary for Martin - Santa, that is - to climb an aerial ladder 65 feet to a balcony on Gimbels' fifth floor, where he entered the store.

OrlandoSentinel.com/politicalpulse Kosmas on science panel, urges $2B more for NASA It was never really in doubt: U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas has been appointed to the House Science Committee -- a key assignment, given that the freshman Democrat from New Smyrna Beach made helping NASA and Kennedy Space Center a plank of her platform. According to an announcement by her office, she responded by sending a letter to the House leadership urging an additional $2 billion for NASA exploration systems and space operations in the coming economic-stimulus package.

NEW YORK -- Flying low through gray skies, Snoopy swooped down Broadway on Thursday, his aviator goggles slick with rain. Thousands of spectators lining the parade route had waited in the soggy cold, wondering whether the inflatable stars of the 80th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade would be grounded by strong gusts of wind. Then the beagle bobbed into view. "There's Snoopy!" shouted a man peering up Eighth Avenue from 34th Street. The city's Office of Emergency Management, which had closely monitored the weather conditions, gave the giant balloons the go-ahead just before the parade kicked off -- but handlers reined them in tightly, holding them at about 17 feet above the street, said OEM spokesman Jarrod Bernstein.

Art lovers who dream of viewing the treasures of the Louvre can skip the trip to Paris, now that Atlanta's High Museum of Art has launched a three-year partnership with the French museum. "Louvre Atlanta," which began Oct. 14, will bring hundreds of works from the Louvre's collections, many of which have never been shown in America, to the High for a series of long-term thematic exhibitions. The first show, "Kings as Collectors," which runs through Sept. 2, 2007, features 32 paintings amassed by Louis XIV and Louis XVI during their reigns.

I was appalled to read that the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade organizers have excluded Miss America in favor of Miss Universe. In this year more than any other, when Americans everywhere are pulling together for the good of the country, a business located that close to ground zero should show a little more consideration for the feeling of its fellow Americans. Veronica Gallagher Leesburg

Turkey and the tube make a good combination on Thanksgiving Day, and this year is no exception.First, it's the 70th anniversary edition of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 a.m. Thursday, WESH-Channel 2). Meanwhile, CBS covers the Macy's parade, along with marches in Hawaii, Disneyland and Detroit on The All-American Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 a.m. Thursday, WCPX-Channel 6).Later, the Dallas Cowboys will take on the Washington Redskins (3:30 p.m. Thursday, WOFL-Channel 35).Thursday's prime-time slate includes a screening of My Fair Lady (7:30 p.m., WCPX-Channel 6)

Macy's flagship New York store will be the subject of a reality show on WE, the Women's Entertainment network. `Unwrapping Macy's' begins airing Sept. 30 and will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the store's operations, including the Thanksgiving Day parade.

LEAPING INTO THE SEASON For a different terpsichorean take on the season, try Soul Play's The Power of the Gospel, a dance-theater retelling of the Christmas story to classic Christmas and contemporary popular music. The story is not spoon-fed, says director Staci Eubanks. "It is abstract and people will have to think, if they want to." The recently founded Soul Play is a modern-fusion dance group performing at the Harwood-Watson Dance Studio and Theater, 820 Humphries Ave., Orlando. Check it out: Performances are at 8 p.m. today, Saturday, next Friday and Dec. 18 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 19. Tickets are $10 to $16, available by calling 407-766-7470.